Munich Personal RePEc Archive

Persistence of suicides in : SPSM approach to three generations of unit root tests

Anyikwa, Izunna and Hamman, Nicolene and Phiri, Andrew

7 July 2018

Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/87790/ MPRA Paper No. 87790, posted 08 Jul 2018 17:53 UTC PERSISTENCE OF SUICIDES IN G20 COUNTRIES: SPSM APPROACH TO THREE GENERATIONS OF UNIT ROOT TESTS

Izunna Anyikwa Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economic Studies, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 6031.

Nicolene Hamman Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economic Studies, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 6031.

And

Andrew Phiri Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economic Studies, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 6031.

ABSTRACT: Suicides represent an encompassing measure of psychological well-being, emotional stability as well as life satisfaction and have been recently identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a major global health concern. The G20 countries represent the powerhouse of global economic governance and hence possess the ability to influence the direction of global suicide rates. In applying the sequential panel selection method (SPSM) to three generations of unit root testing procedures, the study investigates whether G20 countries should be concerned with possible persistence within suicide rates. The results obtained from all three generation of tests provide rigid evidence of persistence within the suicides for most member states of the G20 countries hence supporting the current strategic agenda pushed by the WHO in reducing suicides to a target rate of 10 percent. In addition, we further propose that such strategies should emulate from within G20 countries and spread globally thereafter.

Keywords: Suicides; sequential panel selection method (SPSM); nonlinear unit root tests; Fourier form unit root tests; G20 countries

JEL Classification Code: C22; C32; C51; C52; I12

1 INTRODUCTION

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) Mortality Database, suicides are classified as one of the leading causes of death worldwide and claims almost a million lives every year. It is thus risen as an important public health problem and a source of concern for public health management in both the developed and developing countries. Suicides as an extreme form of mortality encompasses a broad base of psychological factors such as mental health, life satisfaction and happiness (Daly et al., 2013) and has a profound effect not only on the public health but also on social and economic spheres. Moreover, death caused by suicide, besides the emotional and psychological effects on the community, also results in a loss of potential labour force participation (, 2017). In 2013, the World Health

Organization (WHO) launched its “Mental Health Plan” in which member states have committed themselves to reducing global suicides by 10 percent by 2020. In 2014, the WHO released its first suicide-focused report titled “Preventing Suicides: A global imperative”, in which it is recommended that member states adopt and implement national strategies aimed at combating and preventing suicides (WHO, 2014).

Considering the overriding importance of suicides on a global platform, it is curious to know as to why very little is known and researched about suicides in the empirical economic literature. This is, firstly, because, initially, the psychological aspect of human behaviour were earlier thought to be unnecessary towards economic analysis since such measures were not backed by observable data (Case and Deaton, 2013). Secondly, in many countries suicides are considered a ‘taboo’ topic, hence the collection of adequate data on suicide statistics becomes problematic. A contributing factor to t